The armies on both sides of the conflict were ill equipped—there simply weren’t enough clothes or food, much less medicines, stretchers or bandages, for the troops. In a large part, they were fed and clothed by their families and volunteers back home. In Australia and New Zealand women knitted socks and balaclavas, rolled bandages, made biscuits to sell for ‘comforts’ for the men. Each state had a division of the Australian Comforts Fund. In 1916, for example, when the army was short of socks, 80,000 pairs were knitted in a couple of months. Many women knitted a pair of socks a day, and that in a time when wool first had to be rolled into balls before you even started knitting. Few women throughout the war ever had idle hands—they sewed, they knitted, they crocheted, even when standing in line at the fruit and vegetable shop. They also provided 20,000 tommy cookers (small cans packed with sand and petrol for cooking in the trenches). The Tanned Sheepskin Committee made 110,734 sheepskin vests.
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